Rated PG-13 for adult themes (meaning sex and violence, not necessarily in that order) oh, and bad language too.
Well, I pulled an all-nighter and finally got a bunch of stories done. This was among them, as it has been eating away at my brain for several months now. Enjoy. Thanks Eric for offering up beta reading services. Thanks to IStabMyHead, for graciously giving me the CD that inspired me to pick this story back up. Thanks, stabby!
Sidney Sheldon owns everything but Trae and this story.
Summary- thirty years after the events of I Dream of Jeannie, JeannieII finally has everything she ever dreamed of. ut when tragedy strike
Chapter One
The Life She Always Wanted
She was the same woman, she kept telling herself. Nothing had changed.
Her hair was still lustrous and dark, though she had changed the color of her eyes to a rich emerald green, and her clothes had changed. She hadn't much choice about changing the clothes, but the new eye color had been for her own amusement. She had moved. People move. It happens.
From Bagdhad, where it was hot and dry, and the sun burned skin and stole away youth to the coast, the United States, to an apartment were she could see the beach from her window and smell the ocean before she opened her eyes. Where she could live alone, for the first time in her life. It would be better. She had even sworn off men but her resolve had faltered quickly.
She turned the diamond ring on her finger around a few times, watching the lights filtering through the window shimmer off its faceted surface. The colors dancing made her smile. She had slipped away from the music and the birthday party raging inside the small house, and was sitting quietly on the edge of the brick steps, applying another coat of rich scarlet lipstick to an already dark mouth.
"I was looking for you, Jeannii."
The voice behind Jeannii did not startle her.
"Trae." She answered, turning around to face the man. Tall and blonde, strange dark eyes and a mouth like a child's. He was handsome, or at least she thought so. Worth at least a few years in this wet, cold town.
"You're incredible." Trae said, kissing Jeannii softly on the cheek.
"I know." She replied, smiling.
"And you're beautiful, and talented and-" he paused to kiss her again. "And that perfume is unbelievable. I'd really like to go home now."
"Well," she hesitated, "say please?"
"Please?" Trae murmured under his breath. "We'll go home and open another bottle of champagne, open presents…you want to open presents, don't you?"
"Maybe. Depends on the present, doesn't it? Is that really what you want?" Jeannii purred, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, softly kissing at his neck and bare shoulders.
"Well I guess, I mean if you really want to go-"
"Oh, I want whatever you want, darling." Jeannii murmured into his ear. "I want whatever you want. I have a special suprise for you anyway."
"All right, darling. You can open your eyes now."
The sight almost took Trae's breath away.
Jeannii was a stunning beauty. Her light eyes had been heavily lined in black kohl, her skin powdered to the color of the finest ivory cream. She wore a skirt of sea foam green velvet, heavy and soft to the touch, the pale blue and white veils draped over her shimmered in the light of the flickering candles, the same light that lit up her dark hair and turned it a fiery auburn.
Jeannii took one deliberate step towards the bed, classic form, heel to perfectly manicured toe. Slowly, she began to dance. It always began slowly. With the music playing softly in the background, she moved, her eyes closed.
"Where's that music coming from?" Trae asked, never taking his eyes off his djinni.
Jeannii frowned. "Never mind that." She replied. A shrug was Trae's only response. The music began again and she picked up the rhythm as only a natural born dancer could do.
It was a hypnotizing spectacle. Jeannii twisted, turning in circles and half circles, her body in slow motion. If Trae had been paying attention he would have realized it was not just Jeannii's body that was moving in slow motion, but the room around her. The clock behind the bed was stopped at ten minutes to eleven, and opening one eye to peek at it, Jeannii smiled in spite of herself, and then frowned. It was time to end this. While time slowed down so did she, and her back and legs were beginning to ache under the weight of the costume.
Her belly dancing outfit was anything but practical, heavy velvet and weighed down with jeweled ornaments, but it had been hers so long she could hardly imagine dancing in anything else. The light green skirt that was her usual costume simply wasn't special enough for a performance of this magnitude, and she was a performer before anything else. It was some relief to unclasp her skirt and let it fall to the ground in a puddle around her feet.
"Now." Jeannii whispered, stepping closer to the bed. "This is your only birthday present, so-"
The phone always rang at exactly the wrong moment.
Don't answer it, stupid. She mouthed to Trae, but he glared at her. It was his "It's music related, try to behave yourself" glare.
"Hello?"
She sat down on the edge of the bed and traced her nails up Trae's foot to make a point, but Trae waved her away.
She was growing bored. She motioned to the bathroom and Trae nodded.
"Sure we can meet in the morning, I was supposed to go to breakfast with Jeannii but I'm sure she won't mind if you tag along-"
Sometimes I think he loves that stupid band more than he does me. She thought bitterly, and stood up to walk to the bathroom.
It took a blink to open the door now, after the additions Jeannii had made to her new apartment.
Technically the bathtub was too large for the bathroom, but there were dimensional ways of getting around such matters. She had expected a romantic evening with her fiancee, but now she was irritated, rather sore, and out of patience. She needed to think of something else to do for a few hours. She closed the door behind her, and a cold chill went up the djinni's spine.
Jeannii whirled around. She could sense another like her, but who-
"You should be ashamed of yourself." The harsh voice of an old woman sitting on the edge of the bathtub made Jeannii blush bright red with embarassment.
"Aunt Milama. " Jeannii said, not turning around. "How long have you been here?"
"Since you arrived home with that slug you call a fiancee`. And I must say, Jeannii, I've never been more embarrassed in all my life."
"Neither have I."
"Well I am sorry to ruin your night but you are needed. I was sent to retrieve you, and quickly."
"What?" Jeannii managed, her eyes wide with amazement.
"I said you are needed home. Go pack your bags."
"Auntie!" Jeannii protested. "Auntie, this isn't fair. I'm just supposed to drop my life, drop my master and come running because the family wants to see me? I've got everything I ever wanted here!"
"No." Her aunt replied solemnly. "I would never come calling on you if this wasn't a matter of-"
"-I've been trying to be good, or sort of good anyway but it's harder than it looks-"
"Jeannii-"
"I shouldn't spy on Trae but he doesn't give me any other choice, and he leaves me here bored all day-"
"-Jeannii, I-"
She blinked up a cordless phone, and motioned her aunt to go away. "If you don't mind I sort of want to listen in on the other line to what my fiancee` is planning for tomorrow so if you don't mind giving me some-"
"Jeannii, your brother is dead."
Jeannii stopped in mid sentence. The phone slipped out of her hands and fell to the ground, she made no attempt to pick it back up.
"I'm sorry, raven. I'm sorry you had to learn this way."
"How?"
"Mina won't speak of it."
Jeannii swallowed hard. "Who did it?" She asked. Her voice was regaining its strength. "Let me find them, auntie."
"Now, child." Milama put her hand on Jeannii's shoulder. "Revenge will not solve-"
"-Don't tell me what revenge will and won't solve!" Jeannii snapped, jerking away from her aunt's touch.
Milama allowed her niece to back away. "You must come home. Your mother will not be able to stand under this new grief, not unless she has you and your sisters."
I can't." Jeannii said. "I can't go home."
"Jeannii, your father has sent for you specifically."
"I can't!" Jeannii sunk down onto the edge of the bathtub, her head in her hands. "I just can't."
Milama sighed. "Very well, little raven. You understand the penalty for disobeying a direct order from a djinni higher ranked than you. Whatever curse falls on you and your master, you brought it by your own doing."
She bent down and gave her niece a kiss on the forehead.
"You were a stubborn girl two thousand years ago and you are a stubborn girl still. I will give your regards to the family." With that she was gone.
There was a moment of silence before Jeannii stood up, and looked around.
"I hate everyone in this family!" She yelled, to nobody in peticular. When there was no answer she picked up a vase off the edge of the bathtub and threw it. It bounced, and then shattered against the tile with a crash.
"Stupid big brother had to go and die and ruin my life! How dare he he's not even supposed to die he's a djinn How could he do this to me-"
She blinked and another heavy glass vase appeared in her hand before she even had time to think.
With a cry of frustration Jeannii threw it as hard as she could. It broke against the wall and a sharp pain shot up her arm, interrupting her temper tantrum.
She looked down and realized blood was dripping steadily from her fingers. She had crushed a glass in her hand without even noticing she had blinked it into existence.
Blast it all to hell.
Irritated, she wiped the blood away on the towel dropped beside her. It was too sore a wound to use magic on. She would try in the morning after a few pain relieving spells and a glass of wine. She never had much of a tolerance for pain. With a sigh Jeannii wrapped up her hand in a bandage she blinked up, and turned to go back into her bedroom. Trae was waiting at the door.
"What was all that about?" He asked, eyes wide.
"It was nothing." She said. "The shelf in there fell down."
Trae's face took on a puzzled expression.
"I didn't even know there were shelves in there." He said, peering past Jeannii into the ruined bathroom. "Anyway, that was Mark. He's coming to breakfast with-"
"-I don't care." Jeannii cut him off. "I hate Mark and I hate Mark's girlfriend but you know that."
"Sweeatheart-"
"Just drop it." Jeannii grumbled. "Let's just go to bed."
"What about-"
The glare on Jeannii's face silenced Trae.
Without any more words she crawled under the comforter, burying her face in her new green and blue pillows. The lights went off before she had a chance to complain about them. Her eyes felt strange and wet, Jeannii wiped them with her hand and then stared amazedly at her own wet palms.
For the first time in longer than she could remember, she was actually crying.
Well, I pulled an all-nighter and finally got a bunch of stories done. This was among them, as it has been eating away at my brain for several months now. Enjoy. Thanks Eric for offering up beta reading services. Thanks to IStabMyHead, for graciously giving me the CD that inspired me to pick this story back up. Thanks, stabby!
Sidney Sheldon owns everything but Trae and this story.
Summary- thirty years after the events of I Dream of Jeannie, JeannieII finally has everything she ever dreamed of. ut when tragedy strike
Chapter One
The Life She Always Wanted
She was the same woman, she kept telling herself. Nothing had changed.
Her hair was still lustrous and dark, though she had changed the color of her eyes to a rich emerald green, and her clothes had changed. She hadn't much choice about changing the clothes, but the new eye color had been for her own amusement. She had moved. People move. It happens.
From Bagdhad, where it was hot and dry, and the sun burned skin and stole away youth to the coast, the United States, to an apartment were she could see the beach from her window and smell the ocean before she opened her eyes. Where she could live alone, for the first time in her life. It would be better. She had even sworn off men but her resolve had faltered quickly.
She turned the diamond ring on her finger around a few times, watching the lights filtering through the window shimmer off its faceted surface. The colors dancing made her smile. She had slipped away from the music and the birthday party raging inside the small house, and was sitting quietly on the edge of the brick steps, applying another coat of rich scarlet lipstick to an already dark mouth.
"I was looking for you, Jeannii."
The voice behind Jeannii did not startle her.
"Trae." She answered, turning around to face the man. Tall and blonde, strange dark eyes and a mouth like a child's. He was handsome, or at least she thought so. Worth at least a few years in this wet, cold town.
"You're incredible." Trae said, kissing Jeannii softly on the cheek.
"I know." She replied, smiling.
"And you're beautiful, and talented and-" he paused to kiss her again. "And that perfume is unbelievable. I'd really like to go home now."
"Well," she hesitated, "say please?"
"Please?" Trae murmured under his breath. "We'll go home and open another bottle of champagne, open presents…you want to open presents, don't you?"
"Maybe. Depends on the present, doesn't it? Is that really what you want?" Jeannii purred, wrapping her arms tightly around his waist, softly kissing at his neck and bare shoulders.
"Well I guess, I mean if you really want to go-"
"Oh, I want whatever you want, darling." Jeannii murmured into his ear. "I want whatever you want. I have a special suprise for you anyway."
"All right, darling. You can open your eyes now."
The sight almost took Trae's breath away.
Jeannii was a stunning beauty. Her light eyes had been heavily lined in black kohl, her skin powdered to the color of the finest ivory cream. She wore a skirt of sea foam green velvet, heavy and soft to the touch, the pale blue and white veils draped over her shimmered in the light of the flickering candles, the same light that lit up her dark hair and turned it a fiery auburn.
Jeannii took one deliberate step towards the bed, classic form, heel to perfectly manicured toe. Slowly, she began to dance. It always began slowly. With the music playing softly in the background, she moved, her eyes closed.
"Where's that music coming from?" Trae asked, never taking his eyes off his djinni.
Jeannii frowned. "Never mind that." She replied. A shrug was Trae's only response. The music began again and she picked up the rhythm as only a natural born dancer could do.
It was a hypnotizing spectacle. Jeannii twisted, turning in circles and half circles, her body in slow motion. If Trae had been paying attention he would have realized it was not just Jeannii's body that was moving in slow motion, but the room around her. The clock behind the bed was stopped at ten minutes to eleven, and opening one eye to peek at it, Jeannii smiled in spite of herself, and then frowned. It was time to end this. While time slowed down so did she, and her back and legs were beginning to ache under the weight of the costume.
Her belly dancing outfit was anything but practical, heavy velvet and weighed down with jeweled ornaments, but it had been hers so long she could hardly imagine dancing in anything else. The light green skirt that was her usual costume simply wasn't special enough for a performance of this magnitude, and she was a performer before anything else. It was some relief to unclasp her skirt and let it fall to the ground in a puddle around her feet.
"Now." Jeannii whispered, stepping closer to the bed. "This is your only birthday present, so-"
The phone always rang at exactly the wrong moment.
Don't answer it, stupid. She mouthed to Trae, but he glared at her. It was his "It's music related, try to behave yourself" glare.
"Hello?"
She sat down on the edge of the bed and traced her nails up Trae's foot to make a point, but Trae waved her away.
She was growing bored. She motioned to the bathroom and Trae nodded.
"Sure we can meet in the morning, I was supposed to go to breakfast with Jeannii but I'm sure she won't mind if you tag along-"
Sometimes I think he loves that stupid band more than he does me. She thought bitterly, and stood up to walk to the bathroom.
It took a blink to open the door now, after the additions Jeannii had made to her new apartment.
Technically the bathtub was too large for the bathroom, but there were dimensional ways of getting around such matters. She had expected a romantic evening with her fiancee, but now she was irritated, rather sore, and out of patience. She needed to think of something else to do for a few hours. She closed the door behind her, and a cold chill went up the djinni's spine.
Jeannii whirled around. She could sense another like her, but who-
"You should be ashamed of yourself." The harsh voice of an old woman sitting on the edge of the bathtub made Jeannii blush bright red with embarassment.
"Aunt Milama. " Jeannii said, not turning around. "How long have you been here?"
"Since you arrived home with that slug you call a fiancee`. And I must say, Jeannii, I've never been more embarrassed in all my life."
"Neither have I."
"Well I am sorry to ruin your night but you are needed. I was sent to retrieve you, and quickly."
"What?" Jeannii managed, her eyes wide with amazement.
"I said you are needed home. Go pack your bags."
"Auntie!" Jeannii protested. "Auntie, this isn't fair. I'm just supposed to drop my life, drop my master and come running because the family wants to see me? I've got everything I ever wanted here!"
"No." Her aunt replied solemnly. "I would never come calling on you if this wasn't a matter of-"
"-I've been trying to be good, or sort of good anyway but it's harder than it looks-"
"Jeannii-"
"I shouldn't spy on Trae but he doesn't give me any other choice, and he leaves me here bored all day-"
"-Jeannii, I-"
She blinked up a cordless phone, and motioned her aunt to go away. "If you don't mind I sort of want to listen in on the other line to what my fiancee` is planning for tomorrow so if you don't mind giving me some-"
"Jeannii, your brother is dead."
Jeannii stopped in mid sentence. The phone slipped out of her hands and fell to the ground, she made no attempt to pick it back up.
"I'm sorry, raven. I'm sorry you had to learn this way."
"How?"
"Mina won't speak of it."
Jeannii swallowed hard. "Who did it?" She asked. Her voice was regaining its strength. "Let me find them, auntie."
"Now, child." Milama put her hand on Jeannii's shoulder. "Revenge will not solve-"
"-Don't tell me what revenge will and won't solve!" Jeannii snapped, jerking away from her aunt's touch.
Milama allowed her niece to back away. "You must come home. Your mother will not be able to stand under this new grief, not unless she has you and your sisters."
I can't." Jeannii said. "I can't go home."
"Jeannii, your father has sent for you specifically."
"I can't!" Jeannii sunk down onto the edge of the bathtub, her head in her hands. "I just can't."
Milama sighed. "Very well, little raven. You understand the penalty for disobeying a direct order from a djinni higher ranked than you. Whatever curse falls on you and your master, you brought it by your own doing."
She bent down and gave her niece a kiss on the forehead.
"You were a stubborn girl two thousand years ago and you are a stubborn girl still. I will give your regards to the family." With that she was gone.
There was a moment of silence before Jeannii stood up, and looked around.
"I hate everyone in this family!" She yelled, to nobody in peticular. When there was no answer she picked up a vase off the edge of the bathtub and threw it. It bounced, and then shattered against the tile with a crash.
"Stupid big brother had to go and die and ruin my life! How dare he he's not even supposed to die he's a djinn How could he do this to me-"
She blinked and another heavy glass vase appeared in her hand before she even had time to think.
With a cry of frustration Jeannii threw it as hard as she could. It broke against the wall and a sharp pain shot up her arm, interrupting her temper tantrum.
She looked down and realized blood was dripping steadily from her fingers. She had crushed a glass in her hand without even noticing she had blinked it into existence.
Blast it all to hell.
Irritated, she wiped the blood away on the towel dropped beside her. It was too sore a wound to use magic on. She would try in the morning after a few pain relieving spells and a glass of wine. She never had much of a tolerance for pain. With a sigh Jeannii wrapped up her hand in a bandage she blinked up, and turned to go back into her bedroom. Trae was waiting at the door.
"What was all that about?" He asked, eyes wide.
"It was nothing." She said. "The shelf in there fell down."
Trae's face took on a puzzled expression.
"I didn't even know there were shelves in there." He said, peering past Jeannii into the ruined bathroom. "Anyway, that was Mark. He's coming to breakfast with-"
"-I don't care." Jeannii cut him off. "I hate Mark and I hate Mark's girlfriend but you know that."
"Sweeatheart-"
"Just drop it." Jeannii grumbled. "Let's just go to bed."
"What about-"
The glare on Jeannii's face silenced Trae.
Without any more words she crawled under the comforter, burying her face in her new green and blue pillows. The lights went off before she had a chance to complain about them. Her eyes felt strange and wet, Jeannii wiped them with her hand and then stared amazedly at her own wet palms.
For the first time in longer than she could remember, she was actually crying.